


First Condition

by melonbutterfly



Category: StarTrek: The Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-21
Updated: 2009-06-21
Packaged: 2017-10-12 23:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if at the beginning of "Déjà Q", Mrs Q had visited Q?</p>
            </blockquote>





	First Condition

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from the quote "The first condition of immortality is death", by Stanislaw J. Lec.

"Came to gloat?", Q says grouchily into the silence, and everyone on the bridge turns to look at him in confusion. But Q obviously isn't talking to any of them; his arms are crossed and he's wearing the petulant, whiny expression he has been wearing nearly constantly ever since he appeared, and he's staring at a woman—a tall, curvy female with long red hair and a cool, arrogant expression. Her whole demeanour emanates disdain, and she is ignoring everyone on the bridge except for Q—one doesn't have to be a genius to tell that she is also Q.

She looks Q up and down and says, "That is disgusting."

Q snorts. "No need to tell _me_."

"Honestly." She rolls her eyes and waves her hand in a careless gesture, and then Q is clad in _something_ else. Nobody is quite able to describe what it is, they only know it's colourful. Actually, it's _screaming_ colour—all kinds of colour the human eye can see, and, knowing Q, probably a bunch it can't as well. Had Geordi been there, he surely would have been able to tell them that it glows, emits radio waves or something similar.

He knows he shouldn't be, but Picard is surprised—he had automatically assumed that Q and- _Lady_ Q had been referring to Q's status as a human, or a mortal, or really just generally something that is not Q. Then again, it's not that surprising that the thing that bothers her—her?—the most is the greyness of the clothes they had given Q. Q had been complaining about them as well, after all, in the midst of all the drama about him being mortal and punishment and disbelief that they had actually done this to him. Picard had been surprised that Q had been surprised, and it had raised his opinion of the Continuum considerably.

"Now, really, I would ask how you managed to have gotten yourself into such a mess, but I know already." Lady Q says, but before Q can reply she scowls and waves her arms and shakes her hands, looking disgusted. "This is horrible! To be confined like that, I cannot understand how you can bear it."

Q rolls his eyes. "It's not like I have a choice, sweetums. But while we're at it, since when do you shape yourself into a matter-based body just because I do too?"

She throws him a disgusted, pissed glance and says "Since now, obviously." Picard is tempted to wonder whether she's always so hostile, but he supposes anyone having to deal with Q— _that_ Q—on a daily basis would be. He takes great care to stay neutral, but he can't help but feel a tiny bit of glee that someone treats Q like that. He doesn't not deserve it.

But Q apparently doesn't think she's treating him bad. He throws her a glance that doesn't say so; it looks more like a mix of surprise, reluctant gratefulness and something like… fondness, maybe. That's an emotion so alien on Q's face Picard is not sure he's interpreting it correctly, and it's gone too quickly to observe it further—but then Q says, a little slowly, "I am amazed you even know what humans look like," and it's not in his voice—that sounds like always—but somehow, it's still there. Picard is tempted to wonder if that's how the Q communicate—in shapeless, voiceless nothings—but he knows Q must be fully human now, so it's probably one of those things Deanna is better equipped to notice than he.

Lady Q's left eyebrow twitches upwards. "I made sure I'd know before I came, since you so obviously aren't equipped to communicate like a sapient being anymore."

"Lovely, darling, just lovely." Q rolls his eyes, his tone is sarcastic and dry and really, had someone said that to Picard, he'd interpreted it as more of an insult than anything else. But it's apparent Q and Lady Q have other ways to communicate, for she suddenly smiles—a real smile that suddenly makes her seem not so cold anymore.

"When you die, I'll come collect your pattern," she says, and there's only a minimum of arrogance in her voice.

Both of Q's eyebrows shot up in surprise and he speaks before thinking; "Really?" He sounds amazed, and that puzzles and amazes Picard himself. He would have thought Q wasn't able to really feel something like that anymore. It seems being human is changing Q already—or Lady Q has just said something that simply _is_ amazing. Picard, obviously, wouldn't know.

And Lady Q appears to be amused, and she says "I'll sit by and watch. But I will-" She doesn't continue, deliberately, and her gaze turns calculating.

Q narrows his eyes. "You-" He doesn't continue either, but they seem to still have communicated in some way, because an evil grin suddenly splits her face, and Q starts to laugh. He is still laughing when Lady Q leaves, quickly, with a minimum of flash.


End file.
